What's on your Daily Viewing List? (2 Viewers)

[Robin9]

Last night I did something I very seldom do: I watched a James Bond film. The Spy Who Loved Me is mindless entertainment but I wasn't bored. I was amused by the Lawrence Of Arabia pastiche.

 

[Dave Moritz]

November 16th, 2017 Thursday

Rewatch Cars 3 after purchasing the 4K UHD version.

Cars 3
4K UHD BD
7.1 Dolby True HD (Atmos)

Just missing Cars 2 and maybe at some point I will upgrade Cars to 4K UHD not sure right now.

Got to work in the following titles in the next week or two.

Rewatch: Apollo 13 on 4K UHD BD
Watch: Cabin In The Woods 4K UHD BD
Ex Machina 4K UHD BD
And watch the newer Planet Of The Apes Trilogy 4K UHD BD
Lethal Weapon BD
Glory BD

 

[Toronto Argonauts]

 

[Dave Moritz]

November 18th, 2017 Saturday

War For The Planet Of The Apes
4K UHD BD
7.1 Dolby True HD (Atmos)

 

[Mike Frezon]

For the first time ever, Peg and I watched tonight:

Oh my gosh. This was a great movie. I've always wanted to see it. I knew the play held the record for longest run on Broadway. It's now clear to me why. I actually laughed out loud several times during this film (that doesn't happen too often). Timeless, classic material performed beautifully by an all-star cast. Most times I laughed I even noticed that they retained the pauses before the next line of dialogue as if they knew the audience would be reacting to the prior line.

What an awesome film.

I watched it on a recording I had made off of TCM back on Father's Day of this year. I wish I hadn't waited this long to watch!

I'd snap up a Blu of this in a second. A notice before the film says the UCLA film restoration crew performed its magic on the three-strip technicolor negatives back in 1992. But, honestly, the presentation was rather uneven...with nice color in some scenes and a rather drab and dreary look in other parts. Something you don't see that often any more but "cigarette burn" marks were still present for the reel changes. I guess a fair amount of further work would be needed before the film could be considered ready for an HD release. But since the negatives still exist, I would suspect this could still be done?

Anyway...none of this diminished my enjoyment of this wonderful film!

 

[Matt Hough]

I love it, too, but I've never seen a better than decent home video presentation. I believe the film was at one time in the public domain, so there were hundreds of different incarnations of it at the video store. The DVD I have has fair color, but all those warm colors would look breathtaking if the proper care could be lavished on this wonderful film.

William Powell won the New York Film Critics Best Actor award for his performance, but he lost the Oscar to Ronald Coleman in A Double Life.

"Ee, gad, those gypsies are back!"

 

[Toronto Argonauts]

Today
Canadian Football League East finals Toronto Argonauts and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. West finals Edmonton Eskimos and the Calgary Stampeders
On the road to the Grey Cup.

 

[Robin9]

I've just watched that splendid Twilight Time disc High Time for, I think, the fourth time. I saw this film three times when it first came out, and it made me a fan of Bing Crosby. It also made me a fan of The Second Time Around, a major element in the vast Jimmy Van Heusen song catalogue.

I enjoy this film as much as I ever did; perhaps even more because I now recognise the huge contribution of Henry Mancini (and that base trombone!) Something else I now recognise: Blake Edwards was a very good director of actors. He even got a likable performance from Tuesday Weld who normally irritates me enormously!

 

[bujaki]

For the first time ever, Peg and I watched tonight:

Oh my gosh. This was a great movie. I've always wanted to see it. I knew the play held the record for longest run on Broadway. It's now clear to me why. I actually laughed out loud several times during this film (that doesn't happen too often). Timeless, classic material performed beautifully by an all-star cast. Most times I laughed I even noticed that they retained the pauses before the next line of dialogue as if they knew the audience would be reacting to the prior line.

What an awesome film.

I watched it on a recording I had made off of TCM back on Father's Day of this year. I wish I hadn't waited this long to watch!

I'd snap up a Blu of this in a second. A notice before the film says the UCLA film restoration crew performed its magic on the three-strip technicolor negatives back in 1992. But, honestly, the presentation was rather uneven...with nice color in some scenes and a rather drab and dreary look in other parts. Something you don't see that often any more but "cigarette burn" marks were still present for the reel changes. I guess a fair amount of further work would be needed before the film could be considered ready for an HD release. But since the negatives still exist, I would suspect this could still be done?

Anyway...none of this diminished my enjoyment of this wonderful film!

The TCM presentation is the best I've seen of this film since I saw it at MoMA in 1974. WB sent an original 35mm nitrate Technicolor print that was unforgettable. It is a wonderful Curtiz film.

 

[Rodney]

For the first time ever, Peg and I watched tonight:

Oh my gosh. This was a great movie. I've always wanted to see it. I knew the play held the record for longest run on Broadway. It's now clear to me why. I actually laughed out loud several times during this film (that doesn't happen too often). Timeless, classic material performed beautifully by an all-star cast. Most times I laughed I even noticed that they retained the pauses before the next line of dialogue as if they knew the audience would be reacting to the prior line.

What an awesome film.

I watched it on a recording I had made off of TCM back on Father's Day of this year. I wish I hadn't waited this long to watch!

I'd snap up a Blu of this in a second. A notice before the film says the UCLA film restoration crew performed its magic on the three-strip technicolor negatives back in 1992. But, honestly, the presentation was rather uneven...with nice color in some scenes and a rather drab and dreary look in other parts. Something you don't see that often any more but "cigarette burn" marks were still present for the reel changes. I guess a fair amount of further work would be needed before the film could be considered ready for an HD release. But since the negatives still exist, I would suspect this could still be done?

Anyway...none of this diminished my enjoyment of this wonderful film!

TCM is playing this on the evening of Thursday, 11/23 (otherwise known as Thanksgiving in America).

 

[Robin9]

I watched Jesse James tonight for about the five thousandth time! I really like this film. It has a few rough edges that, with the benefit of hindsight and repeated viewings, can be seen to need polishing. Henry Hull's newspaper man quickly wears out his welcome but in total it's a very good film.

Great shame that this is one of the 20th Century Fox films which will never again look as good as it did when it first came out. I'd love to have seen an original print of Jesse James.

 

[bujaki]

I may not have seen an "original" original print of Jesse James, but I did see a 35mm Technicolor nitrate print at MoMA. If I remember correctly, it came from the Fox archives.

 

[Robin9]

I may not have seen an "original" original print of Jesse James, but I did see a 35mm Technicolor nitrate print at MoMA. If I remember correctly, it came from the Fox archives.

A nitrate print: I envy you. Was it still in good condition?

 

[bujaki]

A nitrate print: I envy you. Was it still in good condition?

Oh, yes!

 

[Robin9]

Last night I watched Pay Or Die on a Warner Archive DVD-R for only the third time since buying the disc more than four years ago. This film got pretty good reviews when it first came I and deservedly so, but is now a neglected film. It's a gangster film about The Black Hand but told from the view of a police officer.

As usual, after watching the film I read opinions on IMDB and I was pleased that many shared my admiration for Zohra Lampert's performance. Like those people, I wish she had been given more leading roles.

 

[Matt Hough]

Depending on what the mail brings, I hope to catch up with television shows from Monday and Tuesday and, time permitting, Lucy on UHD.

 

[Dave Moritz]

November 22nd, 2017 Wednesday

The Cabin In The Woods
4K UHD BD
7.1 Dolby True HD (Atmos)

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug
1080p BD upconverted to 4K UHD
7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio

The Cabin In The Woods 4K UHD BD $17.99
Apes Trilogy 4K UHD BD $49.99
Apollo 13 4K UHD BD $19.99
Ex Machina 4K UHD BD $17.99

 

[Matt Hough]

I have the 4K The Cabin in the Woods in my to-watch stack. And it was a blind buy, too, but the price was so low and word of mouth so positive that I thought I'd give it a try. Maybe over the Thanksgiving weekend.

 

[Robin9]

I watched The Man In The Middle last night, for the first time in several years. I've always liked and admired this film, not least for the pearl of wisdom at the end given by Robert Mitchum to France Nuyen: "If you can't beat them, it doesn't mean you have to join them." The film has one or two rough edges and some of the British actors playing Americans have no ear for accents. The casting is interesting: Al Waxman, whom I later knew from Cagney And Lacey on TV, has a small role. Most of all and best of all was the casting of Trevor Howard as the irreverent, disillusioned key witness: a masterstroke of casting.

I was surprised to note that the source novel was written by the blacklisted Howard Fast, one of the very few who admitted to being a communist, who also wrote Spartacus and a flawed but absorbing autobiography Being Red.

The core plot of The Man In The Middle may ring a bell with some people: Within a military establishment a soldier kills a fellow soldier. There is no question who did it and the accused makes no attempt to deny responsibility. It's an open and shut case. For reasons of military politics, the top command want to get the trial over and done with quickly. To avoid a drawn out trial, they appoint as counsel for the defense a man they know will just go through the motions and make no attempt to investigate in depth. At first all goes to plan, but events conspire to annoy the defense counsel who becomes more diligent. He notes that the senior medical officer may have been superficial in his assessment of a key person. A crucial witness with vital information to challenge the accepted opinion agrees to give evidence. There is now a viable defense strategy . . . . but that key witness is killed, leaving the defense counsel up the creek without a paddle. He goes into court. The bench is unsympathetic to his attempts to defend his client . . . .

This plot was later used, with neither shame nor acknowledgement, by another writer.

Tonight it'll be Joan Bennett for me. Eleven Men And A Girl and possibly The Scar.

 

[Toronto Argonauts]

Starting to night